Fox exec: I didn’t believe what I said

A top Fox News executive made repeated on-air references to Barack Obama’s affinity for “socialism” in the 2008 campaign, only later to acknowledge he was engaging in “mischievous speculation” about something he found “far-fetched.”

The admission came from Bill Sammon, now the “fair and balanced” network’s vice president and Washington, D.C. managing editor. A few months after the campaign, Sammon was guest on a Mediterranean cruise sponsored by conservative Hillsdale College.

According to an audio obtained by the Media Matters watchdog group (and persistent Fox critic), Sammon said:

“Last year, candidate Barack Obama stood on a sidewalk in Toledo, Ohio, and first let it slip to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to, quote, ‘spread the wealth around.’

“At the time, I have to admit, that I went on TV and Fox News and publicly engaged in what I guess was some rather mischievous speculation about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism, a premise that privately I found rather far-fetched.”

Sammon went on two Fox News programs in October of 2008 to suggest that spread-the-wealth is “tantamount to socialism” and that Obama’s writings suggest that he was “drawn to Marxists.”

In an e-mail to Fox News staffers, Sammon highlighted “Obama’s references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists” in the future president’s autobiography Dreams from My Father.”

Sammon tried to explain his apparent admission of untruth in a Tuesday interview with Howard Kurtz of The Daily Beast.

“In an interview, Sammon says his references to ‘mischievous speculation’ was ‘my probably inartful way of saying: ‘Can you believe how far this thing has come?'” Kurtz wrote.

And, writes Kurtz, Sammon continued, “The socialism question indeed ‘struck me as a far-fetched idea’ in 2008. I considered it kind of a remarkable notion that we would even be having this conversation.”

Media Matters has released a succession of Sammon’s internal memos to the troops.